If you are already interested in permaculture, then you may well already be considering a round garden building for your outside space. As a permaculture practitioner, you will understand the importance of creating integrated systems, which meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Round garden buildings can play an important role in creating sustainable systems, wherever you live. 

What is Permaculture?

If you are new to the concepts of sustainability and eco-friendly gardening, you may be wondering what permaculture is. In short, permaculture is a blueprint for sustainable living. Short for ‘permanent agriculture’ or, more broadly, ‘permanent culture’, it centres around three core ethics:

• Care for our planet.
• Care for humanity.
• Fair share (or return of surplus to the system). 

By working with nature to meet our own needs, we can create thriving and abundant systems that deliver everything we need without having any negative impact. 

Many of the world’s problems can be solved in a permaculture garden. 

Why Choose a Round Garden Building in a Permaculture Garden?

Permaculture often involves thinking outside the box. It involves taking a long, hard look at the way we do things, and finding better ways. A round garden building can certainly fit into this ethos. With its more organic shape and form, which mimics the forms of nature, it can blend in well with other permaculture features. 

It can also be a sustainable choice. Choosing one of our round garden buildings definitely allows you to care for our planet and for other people. These structures are constructed from natural, sustainable materials, and can reduce energy use over their lifetimes. They also use fewer resources to build than square structures. And their high quality means that they will last and endure. 

Permaculture Inside a Round Garden Building

Moving beyond the structure itself, what you do inside your round garden building can also help you move towards a permaculture lifestyle. For example, a round garden building can be a space where you can:

• Grow your own food, year-round – even during the coldest months.
• Sow and grow other resources for yourself and your family. (Such as medicinal plants/ herbal remedies, plants for natural cleaning and beauty products etc..)
• Reuse old items to reduce your reliance on damaging systems and prevent waste. 
• Build skills and make, take a DIY approach – turning a round garden building into a workshop or studio for art, crafting, repair etc…
• Work from home, either for a sustainable company, or by taking an entrepreneurial attitude and setting up your own sustainable permaculture business from home.

Permaculture Systems Around a Round Garden Building

A round garden building can also be integrated into wider permaculture systems around your home and garden. For example, you might:

• Generate renewable energy with roof-mounted solar panels etc..
• Catch and utilise rainwater from the roof of your round garden building, and direct it to permaculture features such as swales, rain gardens, wicking beds etc. around your property.
• Use the round garden building as a framework to grow a wide range of climbing plants/ edible crops to produce a yield. 
• Think about using the shade/ shelter provided by a new round garden building to create the right environment to grow a wider range of plants. 
• Use a round garden building to make your life easier as a permaculture gardener. (Not only as a place for rest and recreation, but also potentially as a place to sow, pot up plants etc..)

These are just some examples of the ways in which you can integrate a round garden building into a permaculture approach to gardening and to live. By thinking about the ethics, principles and practicalities of permaculture, you can begin to see how one of these useful structures could be used to channel your efforts and lead you in the right direction.